#but yeah as one of those ''gifted'' kids this is a society-wide issue. it's not relegated solely to public school

[shrimpmandan]

I think both responses are right here tbh. It's not that gifted kids aren't/weren't smart; it's that the education system acts like intelligence is an automatic path to success, and that failure therefore means you "didn't try hard enough". This especially impacts children with autism and/or ADHD because many of them are intelligent, but ultimately crumble under pressure and a lack of accommodations because they're perceived as smart neurotypical children who just "aren't trying hard enough". Other factors such as poor living conditions, poor school conditions (e.g. bullying), and general life stress are also things that plague both neurodivergent and neurotypical gifted children, which they're often not given support for.

There's also the fact that people subconsciously expect less of children. There's a much lower bar for "being smart" when you're 6 as opposed to 26, and there's also the fact that mistakes are more readily forgiven and support is more freely provided. It's easier to ask for help when you're like 5 and every adult around you is basically hardwired to give you praise. It's much harder to do this when you're 20 years old and told that you're doomed to a dead-end future because you weren't ready for college fresh out of high school. People are going to stop giving you support after a certain threshold and dismiss you as simply being too stupid or lazy to survive in the 'real world'.

Gifted kid syndrome is complex. It's not just "boo-hoo you were smart when you're 12 and made it your entire identity". It's a deep-rooted, long-term issue in our society where we place a ton of stock in intelligence and success, put unrealistic expectations on children and teens, refuse to give struggling kids accommodations because executive dysfunction and learning disabilities are viewed as a lack of effort, and then abandon them because they've been labeled as failures and retards.

ohhhhh I get it now. the "gifted kid" discourse exists because people see it fundamentally as a sign of Privilege and not as a largely meaningless category that puffs up weird children before setting them up for the same unremarkable lives as everyone else; thus they interpret people going "the educational system gave me false expectations before ultimately abandoning me to the same heartless world as everyone else" as "why am I, The Main Character, not getting everything I ever wanted."

[tinkadreamchaser]

Guess who... (South Park)

This is some astrology, but don’t leave yet! This one was really fun, so try to guess which South Park character this might be. I used their actual birthday and extrapolated a little on the birthyear. The birth year has to be between 1988 and 2011 if we look at the shows runtime, but then again, they had enough christmas specials to make the kids way too old to still be in elementary school. So yeah, I figured 2000 would be a good year (based on Chinese Zodiacs, they’re helpful for this kind of thing.)

Have fun guessing! There may be parts that don’t seem to fit, but the parts that fit fit extremely well I believe!

Rising Sign is in 08-20 Degrees Leo They love to be the center of attention and they want to appear strong, confident and dominant. They are very proud of themselves, sometimes quite vain even. When all around them are bedraggled and falling apart, they look like a million bucks! Very dignified and honorable, they enjoy the power and privilege, but not the responsibilities, that come with leadership. They are very idealistic but can also be quite stubborn. Others impress them only if they have integrity (but wealth, power and influence can also turn their head). They prefer rich, elegant surroundings and possessions, and will try to acquire them as their budget allows. Physically, they are very impressive - - at their best they have a regal, charismatic demeanor and bearing. Try not to be such a showoff! Sun is in 10 Degrees Cancer. Very emotional and sensitive, they have an intuitive understanding of the "vibes" around them. They tend to be quite generous, giving, loving and caring, but only when their own needs for emotional support, love and security have been met. If they are not met, they tend to withdraw into themselves and become very insecure and selfish. Their home and family (especially their mother or the person who played that role for them early on) represent security for them and thus assume a larger-than-life importance. Very sentimental, they have vivid and long- enduring memories of the past. No matter how well adjusted they are, they will always need a secret quiet place of their own in order to feel at peace. Feeding others can give them great pleasure they would enjoy being part of a large family. Moon is in 06-07 Degrees Cancer. For the most part, they are very strong and secure emotionally. They intuitively know what to do to make others feel comfortable, loved, accepted and needed. They naturally enjoy feeding and taking care of others. Be careful that their mothering does not turn into smothering. At times, they tend to feel that those to whom they are attached can never do anything without their assistance and support. Extremely sensitive by nature, it hurts them deeply whenever anyone criticizes they. They have an almost desperate need to be loved and wanted and needed by everyone with whom they come into contact, and they go out of their way to be accommodating to them. Mercury is in 17 Degrees Cancer. Their emotions tend to rule their thought processes. They have difficulty seeing life objectively. They have an excellent memory, especially about things to which they have formed an emotional bond. They prefer ideas and thoughts that are known and familiar, and therefore tend to dislike fads or radical ideas. The beliefs and traditions of their family and culture are very important to them. Their thinking becomes quite unclear when they are emotionally shaken -- they should not try to make major decisions when they are upset. Let things calm down first. Venus is in 15 Degrees Cancer. They like to be very close to other people. They need emotional support themselves and are willing to give it to others. When they feel unloved and insecure, they can be very jealous and possessive. They are not interested in casual or superficial relationships -- only deep emotional involvements interest them. Their faithful devotion is one of their greatest gifts, but be careful not to become too dependent on others. They need to learn to stand on their own two feet and demand their own rights once in a while. Mars is in 10 Degrees Cancer. Their moods are very important to their overall well-being. They are confident and self-assertive when they are feeling upbeat, and they are retiring, irritable and grumpy when they get depressed about anything. Very sensitive, they wear their heart on their sleeve. They are easily angered whenever they think someone has slighted them. It is best for them to show their anger immediately and let it all out, rather than to try to hold it in or to hold grudges for a long time. They're extremely loyal and defensive of their family, neighborhood, community and culture. Jupiter is in 00 Degrees Gemini. They have a logical, detached, objective view of most things. Their interests are wide-ranging and they are an avid student, with expertise in many different areas. They love to work things out in their mind -- everything they do is reduced to an exercise in logic and reason. They have the ability to grasp abstractions and to deal successfully with the larger issues of life. Their overemphasis on developing their powerful intellect can cause their emotional and intuitive abilities to atrophy unless they consciously choose to exercise them. Saturn is in 26 Degrees Taurus. Complete freedom of choice makes them ill at ease. They must have a firm, ordered, secure foundation in their life in order to feel comfortable. They do not adapt easily and tend to fear the new and untried. They constantly fear that they do not have enough (love, property, material things, etc.) and this makes them tend toward being selfish, withdrawn and stingy. If they try to surround themselves with supportive people in their environment, they will become more emotionally self-supporting. Uranus is in 20 Degrees Aquarius. They, and most of their peer group as well, are reformers at heart. They want to make positive changes that will benefit society as a whole. They are willing to devote their time and energy to see that they come about, especially if the proper group support and combined purpose of will can be found. Be careful that their devotion to group goals does not produce too much friction or neglect in their own interpersonal one-on-one relationships. Neptune is in 05 Degrees Aquarius. They, and their entire generation, will idealize and even venerate the ability to remain detached as well as the ability to objectively analyze any given situation. There will be a concerted effort on their part to cure the ills of society as a whole. But they should be very careful to continue to maintain and protect the rights of individuals in the midst of these potentially far-reaching changes. Pluto is in 10 Degrees Sagittarius. For their entire generation, society's cherished beliefs and totems will be radically changed. Many traditional concepts will be totally altered, if not completely destroyed. The rights of individuals to pursue their own course in life will be reasserted. N. Node is in 24 Degrees Cancer. They genuinely enjoy meeting other people, but they're at their best if they can do so from the comfort of their own home. They prefer others to come to them and tend to feel uncomfortable about leaving their home or neighborhood for any extended period of time. Those who do come in contact with them are struck by their caring and obliging nature -- they really make them feel at home. They form the closest ties, however, with members of their immediate family, especially their parents and children. They're at their best attending or organizing family reunions!

... Did anyone get that? The solution is below

This is the chart for a character that was canonically born on July 1st, near Denver, Colorado. The extrapolated year was 2000.

This is Cartman, guys.

There are several big ifs in that chart. Cancer is a great sign IF you get the stability at home, which he has not. So I figure he lost a lot of the possibility for all that nurture stuff, which is really sad.

Also, I’m not shitting on any Cancer’s, my mom is Cancer and I love her. I have Cancer as my Rising Sign too.

I’m thinking of making more of these...

[writerkenna]

The Lights of Stars and the Glitter in your Eyes Chapter 3

Okay y'all here's the spotify playlist. It is my jam, seriously: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/33fFZZf5GuCb5iKylbEL1V

Songs that I listened to while writing this, in no particular order: I Do Adore, Let's Hear it for the Boy, Yellow, Daddy Issues, and Anything for You

Enjoy!

The meetings, which consisted of councils that were becoming increasingly blurred in Thor’s head and streams of words like ‘judiciary system’ and ‘delegation of power’ pounding at him, had become thrice weekly, always in the morning, always packed.

“I’d like to put my name in for consideration,” Valkyrie said with enough force to rouse Thor’s chin up from slumping on his hand. He hadn’t slept well-consistently hadn’t been sleeping well, whether that be Bruce sharing a bed with him or his political strife was undetermined-and had only been half a part of the conversation so far. He scanned the room and its holographic boards to catch up. Leader of the warrior force, Thor deduced.

“Uh, I, me too, for that. Yeah,” Korg followed. Valkyrie shot him a look, but Korg didn’t seem to notice. The groups of people that made up the councils and parliamentary members present in the room were generally displeased by both nominations, not that they really could do much about it. In the end, Thor would make the choice. On every council leader and major edict of society, it was him who would make the call, which was a boost to his ego while also terrifying as all hell.

Valkyrie eyed him carefully, and Thor knew just from the shift of her lip that she was deciding her odds. She deserved the title, more qualified than anyone in the room, excluding himself, maybe, despite what the rest of the assembly thought of it, thought of her time away from Asgard. Thor would try to find Korg some position, though, fabricate a title if he needed to.

“I’ll see those of you on defense again three days from now. Education and Agriculture, tomorrow morning,” Heimdall ordered. He had alleviated Thor of the duty of running these things, and Thor was more than grateful. They disbanded in a shuffle of mumbles and Thor dredged himself up to stand.

“Hey,” Valkyrie said as she shoved her elbow against Thor’s bicep. He shoved back at her with a grin.

“Trying to take up the old mantle, huh?”

“Yeah,” Valkyrie eased slowly, a prick of something being held back and shift of her shoulders, prepping for a fight, “so?”

“No, no, it’s good! I’m like, yay, Val, you go girl!” Thor covered quick, gesturing a non committal fist bump and Valkyrie took it with a side-arching smirk and roll of her eyes.

“Okay, then.”

“Just don’t let the, well, the others worry you, alright? You’re suited for this.” Thor hoped this was enough for her to understand his leanings, as much of a hint he felt he could reasonably give. Valkyrie’s eyes went wide and her lips formed a flat smile. It warmed Thor a little, to issue something with some effectiveness, some net good.

Loki passed them and they both called after him. He halted with a huff.

“Yes?” he hissed at them both.

“So, what, no bid for power?” Valkyrie snarked back.

“I was expecting at least some sort of coup attempt or something,” Thor added, his glance catching on Loki, who was not exactly mad, maybe closer to a flat discomfort.

“No, not this time. Not me.”

It dawned on Thor how quiet Loki had been in the past two weeks of meetings. No bursts of anger, no snips at parliament, no desperate sieges on Thor himself. It was almost like Loki was actually exhibiting restraint, or possibly embarrassment, maybe some sheepishness to act around a people who would never trust him, but past experience made Thor doubtful of any of those.

“Well,” Thor sighed, feeling some mix of awkward tension and familial sympathy. He shifted on his feet and looked away from the lines of Loki’s unreadable but undeniably dreary eyes, “I think I’m going to find Bruce now.”

Loki and Valkyrie’s eyes connected for a moment, and a smile crossed Loki’s face for the first time in a while. Thor didn’t understand them.

“Mmhm,” Valkyrie hummed. Thor leaned in to them for an explanation, hands squared at his hips, but Loki just breezed a snip of a laugh as Valkyrie wiggled her brows too fast, a sort of suggestion of something.

“Go on,” Loki said with a flick of thin fingers on a tight hand, smirking in a way Thor knew was never good for him, “find your mortal.”

Thor was not in the habit of referring to Bruce, in any capacity, as ‘his mortal’ and he wanted to battle on Loki’s usage of it but both him and Valkyrie looked so smug he didn’t think it would do him much good. Thor sniffed a goodbye and turned towards the cafeteria.

Bruce was in the middle of conversation with a gaggle of kids when Thor found him. They were teaching him an Asgardian card game that was older than Thor. Bruce, everyone had discovered, was actually pretty good with kids when all his context wasn’t hanging around. Thor hesitated before stepping over.

He noticed, not for the first time he must admit, the true gentleness of Bruce Banner. It was an extreme counter to Hulk and all his brash moves, swings of fists and garishly loud outbursts at the wrong times. Bruce was contained and careful with every adjustment he made. Thor could see it right then, how he took his time as he slid cards to the members of his circle. Each movement started with a ducked head and a shared look, quick but practiced, a final check of consent, a caring concern, before Bruce enacted it. It was close to overwhelmingly sweet, if not worryingly so.

“These kids are whoppin’ my butt, Thor!” Two of the girls in the group giggled. Thor lowered himself around Bruce’s shoulders. Bruce adjusted and Thor caught a hint of a smile and a touch of a blush.

“Play this one.” Thor touched a card with the blunt edge of his nail and Bruce flipped it down onto the table. Someone issued a groan and Bruce gained a point. Thor removed himself from over him, catching the closeness. Bruce gave the win to the kids after the next round and Thor and him made their way back to the room.

“Give me like twenty, thirty minutes, and then Weird Science, okay?” Bruce said as he pulled up all his tabs and his ever-growing paper. It was his plan to have the full paper done and ready for peer-review once they landed, as a sort of homecoming gift of well wishes to earth, a band aid for his long absence from academia. Bruce wouldn’t tell him directly, but Thor could feel the nerves and apprehensions boiling so clearly under Bruce’s skin when they talked about their destination. Thor was relieved the paper was, if not an actual solution, a nice distraction.

Thor flopped belly first onto the bed as Bruce got lost to his work. He appreciated their routine after meetings, work time for Bruce, then a Midgardian film, before they split again and he went to spar with Valkyrie or Korg or any warm, muscled body he found and Bruce dove scrunched-face first into the study of the science of matter in a void or something of the like. Thor, on most days, enjoyed the brief moments of sleep he could steal before Bruce woke him up for the next cinema classic he determined was on their required viewing list.

Thor managed fifteen minutes of a nap before he roused himself with a low groan and pulled two thick packets from his nightstand. He was supposed to have his new education system picked by the next morning, and the thought of that made him want to be swallowed up by the satin sheets under him so deep even Heimdall’s sight would be blind to him. Yet, still, he made a try to read the dense things. As Thor finally reached the bottom of page two, Bruce concluded his work session and turned over his shoulder to him. Thor’s eyes flicked up from his pages and gave Bruce one small scan.

He exuded, even in Sakaarian dressings, a very specific energy, the energy of someone who could be actively interested and spend ten straight hours of research on topics Thor fell asleep just hearing of. Frankly, Bruce Banner was a huge nerd.

“Okay, so this one is-” 

“You must come to my meetings with me.”

“Ah, buddy, I don’t… that’s kind of an overst-” Bruce took a pace back to his screens.

“Yes! This is a brilliant solution! You shall come from now on, Bruce. It’s set.”

“Am I even allowed to be there? Like, isn’t it sort of an Asgardians only thing?” Bruce stumbled, wringing one finger around another.

“Korg’s there,” Thor supplied, seeing his idea, his salvation from the weight of a whole people on his shoulders slinking away as Bruce broke eye contact.

“Well, I-”

“I really want you there,” Thor pleaded. The corner of Bruce’s lips flicked up briefly, enough for Thor to count it as a win.

“I-maybe, okay, I’ll think about it. So am I, like, going as your . . . friend, or just a bystander, or . . . ?”

Thor puzzled on this. Bystander, a very inactive and unhelpful role, was not what Thor wanted. He had sort of pictured more of someone who would pretty much make all the choices for him. He beamed when he found the right word.

“Chancellor. You can be my chancellor. Will you?” Thor pulled his knees up under himself, growing giddy with the the idea of it and feeling his chest get a little lighter. Bruce’s eyes were wide and Thor couldn’t figure if they were going more towards bright surprise or intense shock.

“Ah, wow, that’s-Thor, thanks. That’s, um, chancellor sounds like a big deal, though,” Bruce said as he paced his way over to the bed with his careful tension.

“Well, yes, it is a bit, I suppose. You’d be my advisor and confidant for all matters. Every great king has had one,” Bruce was still unconvinced, hanging on the edge of sitting on the bed and avoiding Thor’s stare. Thor was beginning to feel a hint of desperation in himself, and he suddenly needed this more than he thought, “Bruce, please, I could really use this. And you are-I mean this quite truly-the smartest person I know.”

This seemed to be the secret charm for Bruce, as hearing it made his smile bloom into his cheeks, his bottom lip tucking up under his teeth in a way that reminded Thor of how full Bruce’s lips were.

“Well, I guess I . . . where do I start, then?” Bruce shrugged, not fully sure, but it was enough to get Thor to bound up like a spring to deliver Bruce the packets.

“Yes, yes, thank you, Bruce. You are a wonderful friend. Here, education system outlines. I’m supposed to have one picked by tomorrow.” Bruce’s brows spiked up and he shot Thor a look that was the exact halfway between the start of a laugh and the dip of a frown. He shook his head and opened up the first packet. Thor leaned over and tried to be subtle as he watched Bruce’s face scan the papers. Bruce had the paper close to his eyes as he picked at each line with his finger tracking along, the same look he got when he found a good source on cosmic ray collisions (and Thor actually knew what that meant, which, if anything, was a testament to Bruce’s passion). He seemed to be getting more out of it than Thor could have ever hoped to.

“You should go with this one, I think,” Bruce said as he handed a packet back over to Thor, “It has a really good curriculum already set for the younger kids and a lot of elective choices for the older ones. It will be good for entering the workforce.”

Thor blinked down at the paper, then back up at Bruce who was aflame with blush.

“You’re a genius.”

“Ah, ha, I don’t know about that-” Bruce’s lips went tight across his teeth and his face reddened even further.

“You are,” Thor affirmed. In terms of genius Avengers, Tony was usually the first one that people thought of, but Thor felt, especially over the course of these past few weeks spending majority of his time with Bruce, that he knew exactly who the real brain of the team was. Stark always seemed to understand this, too, if his little remarks about Bruce’s papers and the way he deferred to Bruce in their shared lab work were indicators. Bruce’s intelligence and how far it stretched amazed Thor to no ends, from the second they had met in New York. Bruce was stunned into silence and Thor admitted he was a bit pleased with himself that he was the one able to make sure Bruce was aware of his own brilliance. They were staring at each other now, stuck in that silence, and Thor felt a tingle of electricity mixed with something else slip down to his fingers.

There was an uneasy rumble from beneath their bed and as Thor started up to check on it, the ship jolted harshly to the right and he landed face first into the pillow. He pulled his head up to find Bruce tossed against the floor.

“Thor, y-you okay?” Bruce staggered as he peeled himself off the floor. Thor was quick to pull him back up.

“Let’s go,” Thor shot, and then they were on their way to the hull, bolting down as the ship rustled and tossed. Once they reached the front of the ship, Valkyrie, Heimdall, and Loki were already there. Outside the front window, rocks crashed about them, immense and jagged.

“What’s happening?” Thor asked the crowd.

“Asteroid field that wasn’t on our maps,” Heimdall informed. Another rock hit their left and Bruce fell into Thor’s side. Thor wrapped an arm around him to steady them both, and because Bruce was looking just a bit green at his corners.

“We need to-” Loki started, but he stumbled forward as they were slammed into from behind. A low growl bubbled out from the figure under his arm and Thor checked to find Bruce shaking whatever that was off him.

“Thor, you, ah, you gotta get me to the r-room, now, or I-I gotta-” Bruce’s sweat was sponging off onto Thor’s shoulder. Thor pulled his arms tighter around Bruce as he squirmed.

“I’m going to-uh . . .” Thor shot his eyes over to Loki, who upon seeing Bruce groaning, nodded fast and gestured them off. They had a hard time even staying balanced as Thor got them both back to the room. Bruce was lost from him at this point, half green and drifting further from himself with each tumble of the ground below.

“Bruce, hey, Bruce, let’s just-” Thor tried but Bruce had been good as gone since Thor had closed the door.

“Thor!” The word ripped out of the morphing body in front of him, breaking in the middle, shifting from Bruce’s squawk to Hulk’s howl. A green head tossed back with a roar and Thor was face to face with an eight foot mass focused only on him.

“Hulk, my friend,” Thor eased, with careful hands poised out in front of him as he tiptoed closer to Hulk.

“Hulk miss pretty god. Hulk come to see him.” Hulk pressed in towards Thor, that cocked up grin back again. Thor was washed over with guilt and he shut his eyes with a wince. The interaction started to feel like a betrayal and Thor fell back a few steps away from Hulk.

“You . . . you can’t just take over Bruce to see me. That’s not okay.” Thor remembered Bruce’s theory, the pendulum effect, and worry covered the pit of his gut as he considered a permanent loss of Bruce Banner. Hulk grunted, his brow folding into angry creases, and he punched a lamp off a counter.

“No, no, Hulk want Thor! Hulk come see him!” Hulk threw large fists onto the bed and a pillow bounced to the ground. As his arms continued to thrash about, Thor could see the trajectory of this freak out and while the ship rocketed them around, Thor rushed over to him to calm the storm.

“Okay, shh, shh now,” Thor murmured as he put a hand to Hulk’s chest. He felt the thunder of his heart simmer down to a rumble, and Hulk lowered to sit on the bed, green eyes softening when they found Thor in their line of sight. Warm breath gusted across Thor’s neck and they both inhaled together. Thor chanced a grin, “hey, sorry, we’re okay, alright. I missed you, too. I-just, is Banner going to be able to come back, uh, maybe, one day?”

Hulk frowned at the accusation and nodded. Thor sighed and the situation felt less hefty.

“Hulk let Banner come back tomorrow, okay? But Hulk and Thor first,” Hulk said in a near whisper, a voice Thor was hearing for the first time, and Thor’s breath caught when it hit him, soft and crackling like a hiss of a dying fire. It was a surprise to neither of them when Thor was pulled into the crevice between Hulk’s legs and their lips crashed like a spray of ocean into each other.

The guilt still covered Thor, but it was being eaten up by his excitement. He squeezed his thighs together in some last ditch attempt to stop him from falling down this hole again, but he had been thinking about Hulk’s cock inside him for two weeks and his member was like a dagger jabbing his leg. He was little more than a pulsing mass of flesh that hungered for the dark and full taste of Hulk, and Bruce’s well-being had slipped far, far, back in his mind.

“Unghh, fuck, Hulk, please, take me,” Thor groaned. He rutted himself against the point of Hulk’s knee. Hulk hissed and hummed, playing out a rhythm with his puffs of air into Thor’s hair.

“Thor go here,” Hulk moaned and Thor gave over to Hulk’s force as he moved into the V of Hulk’s legs. Hulk ripped off the bits of torn scraps of Bruce’s pants and Thor’s chest plummeted forward when he was level with the twitching of Hulk’s dick. The ship rattled him forward and his hand was on it.

“Ooh, I . . .” Thor didn’t finish whatever his train of thought was driving towards. He buckled at his waist and stretched his lips into a vice grip around the head of Hulk’s cock. It was pulling him too tight, tight enough that he fretted for the briefest moment his mouth might crack at the edges. But, he wouldn’t, he affirmed to himself, and in the heat of this, in the euphoria that was the challenge of Hulk, found he would allow himself to crack.

Hulk rocked his head back and forth across his shoulders and Thor tracked the motion, rolling his tongue over the slit of the head. Hulk shivered under Thor’s palms.

Thor had decided that this was what he wanted, constantly. He wanted his limits pushed while Hulk moaned and he rubbed himself raw. He wanted to be a whore for this cock, for all the parts of Hulk’s warm and muscled and strained and yet so, so sweet form. Thor dipped down further on the shaft, enhancing his moans to ridiculous proportions, because he needed it to reach Hulk and seep into his ears until his soul could feel Thor’s desperation.

They were animals here, stripped of their context and all of Thor’s problems and Bruce's anxiety and Hulk's danger, and they were just two creatures grinding against each other. They were base and primal, and that fact was making Thor delirious as he yanked on his cock. Hulk splattered in and across Thor, Thor following a moment or two after, and they both slipped back from each other.

Thor licked across his lips and sucked in Hulk’s seed. It was bitter at first but as Thor swallowed it down, it was sweet on his throat. He looked up under his lashes at Hulk, who was panting with a grin. They blinked at each other for a moment, and then Thor was hoisted up and over the rim of the bed to land upon Hulk’s wide barrelled chest. Thor rested his head down, wondering as he rattled in the bed  if he needed to get back to the hull and assist, but then, giving in, he shut his eyes, and he guessed they were cuddling. He liked it more than he would have expected to.

They didn’t bother with cleaning up after, as there was some satisfaction in staying sticky and soiled together. They slept in the blanket of their stench of sex, one of Thor’s more sound sleeps recently.

When he woke up to Bruce, he removed himself without a word, and when they saw each other in the meeting, when Thor saw Bruce’s gentle grin and tired eyes, last night was moot.

(I know RDJ is in Weird Science shhhhh he's just Tony's doppelgänger) 

ps yes they have watched dumbo together it was the first film they watched

COMMENT

[waveridden]

fic: here’s to you and me (taako/kravitz)

The Adventure Zone/Thrilling Adventure Hour fusion AU. Taako/Kravitz and Magnus/Julia. 1.9k. cw: alcohol. lots of it.

Meet Taako and Kravitz. Toast of the upper crust. Headliners on the society pages. And, oh yes, they see ghosts. (written as a birthday gift for @travismcelrcy - happy birthday babe!)

[read on ao3 || title lyric]

“Taako, darling, we’re going to be late,” Kravitz calls, straightening his lapels in the mirror. Running late is not an option, this time: for one this is an important occasion, and for another he dug his best cufflinks out of the depths of his closet for this. It’d be a shame if they were late.

“I’m coming,” Taako shouts back, from where he’s been locked in the bedroom getting ready. “Pour me a martini for the road?”

“I’ve poured you two, and one for myself.”

Taako laughs. “Only one?”

“Someone has to drive there,” Kravitz answers, picking up two of the glasses. “I’m sure Magnus and Julia would prefer it if we were on time.”

“They’d never expect us to be on time,” Taako scoffs as he opens the door. “Hand me a drink?”

Kravitz does automatically, but his breath is seized in his chest. Taako looks - well, he always looks beautiful, but he’s outdone himself today, with his hair doing something complicated and plaited, a lacy dress and a blazer, the way he’s smiling like he knows what he’s doing to Kravitz.

“Cat got your tongue, hon?” Taako asks as he takes his glass.

“You look wonderful,” Kravitz answers, and holds out his own glass.

Taako snickers. “I’ll drink to that,” he says, and they clink their classes together.

Kravitz sips his martini, watching Taako down his in one gulp, the line of his throat as he swallows. “You know,” he says, as conversationally as possible, “we’re already running late.”

“You haven’t let me forget,” Taako mutters, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Why does it matter?”

“No, I’m just thinking…” Kravitz tilts his head. “It certainly won’t matter if we’re slightly later than we are already.”

“What would make us later?”

“Well, my husband looks ravishing tonight, and as much as I’d hate to ruin your makeup after you spent so long on it…”

Taako pauses in reaching for his second martini. “You wanna make out on the couch,” he says delightedly.

Kravitz shrugs. “Don’t you?”

Taako grins, positively devilish. “Oh, Krav,” he sighs, and grabs Kravitz’s carefully-straightened lapels, positively ruins the lines of his suit jacket in the process. “I wouldn’t have worn this dress if I didn’t want to make out on the couch.”

“Well, I’d hate to let you down,” Kravitz murmurs, ghosting his fingers down Taako’s arm. “If you don’t mind being late-”

“When have I ever minded?” Taako laughs, and leans in to kiss him.

#

Julia answers the door holding a parasol over her head. Taako raises his eyebrows. “It’s cloudy out, do you really need that?”

“Maybe not, but I also don’t need to take shit from you when you showed up half an hour late,” Julia shoots back.

Taako grins, all teeth. “What can I say? We got a little caught up.”

Kravitz coughs, not quite embarrassed. Julia latches onto it anyways, turning to tilt her head at him. “And what exactly were you doing?”

“Whom, not what,” Kravitz says before he can stop himself.

Julia laughs delightedly, hard enough that Kravitz can see her fangs. “Oh, God,” she wheezes, “you guys really were a match made in hell, huh?”

“Where all the best matches are made.” Taako leans in to kiss Julia on her cheek. “Happy anniversary. Where’s the big guy?”

“Upstairs, with Merle.” Julia steps out of the doorway. “Come on in. Are those for us or for you?”

“Two for each,” Kravitz answers, and hands her both of his bottles of wine. “Taako has ours. Darling-”

Taako hands him one bottle as he breezes past, brushing his fingers against Kravitz’s in the process. “Don’t drink it all at once,” he calls as he starts up the stairs.

“When you die of alcohol poisoning, I’m not turning you into vampires,” Julia announces, going to set the bottles in the kitchen. “And Magnus and I can’t see ghosts, so we won’t be able to talk to you.”

“Merle could.”

“Merle would talk to Taako. Not you.”

Kravitz sighs. “Honestly, you’d think he would forgive and forget by now, he knows-”

“You tried to exorcise his best friend!”

“I think an exorcism is a perfectly reasonable reaction to a pterodactyl. ”

“They call him Pterodactyl Highchurch,” Julia says exasperatedly. “Where did you think that nickname came from? ”

“I think I had a flight or fight response,” Kravitz mutters. It’s true that he had nearly exorcised Merle’s beloved pet pterodactyl, but as far as he’s concerned the “nearly” outweighs the “exorcised” by a wide margin. “Do you have a corkscrew?”

“You’re lucky the pterodactyl flew instead of fighting,” Julia shoots back, handing Kravitz the corkscrew. “Or else I think Merle would’ve killed you himself.”

“I’m still gonna kill him myself,” Merle says. Kravitz turns to look at him bemusedly, and Merle is scowling up at him. It could be wishful thinking, but it looks less sincere than it used to when they met. “I left the pterodactyl at home, so we can talk like civil people.”

“Name the pterodactyl Hannah,” Magnus suggests. “Hi, Kravitz.”

“Magnus.” Kravitz tips his bottle at him before he goes about uncorking it. “How long have you had this pterodactyl, Merle?”

“Twenty-seven damn years,” Merle snaps. “And it still doesn’t need a name. It’s not like there are enough pterodactyl ghosts that it’ll get confusing.”

Kravitz takes a long swig from the bottle. “It’d be faster to say Hannah,” he points out.

“Well, by that logic, it needs to be a one-syllable name.” Julia drums her fingers on the table. “What about Merle?”

“Naming the pterodactyl Merle?” Magnus scoffs. “That’d be too confusing, come o-”

“Merle Junior,” Merle says thoughtfully. “It has a nice ring to it.”

Magnus points at him. “No. No way, if you want a Merle Junior you should have kids.”

“God, please don’t ever make me think about Merle having kids,” Taako groans. “Or kids existing.”

Julia looks between him and Kravitz in surprise. “You don’t want kids?”

“Hell no,” Taako snorts.

“Not right now,” Kravitz amends, just to watch Taako roll his eyes at him. “No, we’re not interested in having children.”

“I don’t think any of us are,” Merle starts, and then pauses. “Wait a second.”

Kravitz glances at Magnus, whose mouth is open, and Julia, whose cheeks are turning pink. And he figures it out, half a second before Julia says, “Well, actually, that’s what we wanted to talk about today.”

Taako’s eyes widen. “No. No way.”

“I knew twelve years was a weird number for an anniversary party,” Merle mutters.

Magnus goes over to wrap an arm around Julia’s shoulders, which she leans into without hesitation. The two of them are practically glowing. “Guys,” Magnus says, “we’re- she’s- there’s-”

“I’m pregnant,” Julia says softly.

“Mazel tov,” Taako says, and takes a massive drink from his own bottle of wine.

“I don’t wanna be indelicate,” Merle starts, “but, uh… how’s that gonna work?”

Julia frowns. “How’s what going to work?”

“I mean you’re…” Merle gestures at her, then Magnus. “And he’s…”

“He’s referring to the interspecies issue,” Kravitz surmises.

Merle glares at him. “They could’ve figured that out without you.”

“No, that’s a good question, though.” Taako tilts his head. “Vampire plus werewolf means… it’s only going to have fangs on the full moon?”

“We’re not sure,” Julia admits. “There’s not a lot of history of this, and even if there were, neither of our communities is exactly as thrilled as we are.”

“But we’re plenty thrilled,” Kravitz says quickly. “And we can - of course, all three of us see ghosts, we have our ties to the community-”

“Lulu’s gonna flip her shit, ” Taako bursts out, looking thrilled. “She’s going to call dibs on being the cool aunt, you know that, right?”

Julia smiles. “Next time she and Lucretia visit you’ll have to send them our way. We’d be more than happy to have a cool aunt.”

“I want to be the wise grandpa,” Merle announces.

“You have to be wise first,” Taako mutters, ignoring when Merle swats at him.

“Of course you guys are all part of the family,” Magnus says. “And we can figure out what Merle and Lup are later.”

“What about us?” Kravitz asks.

“You’re the rich drunk uncles,” Magnus says, as though it should be obvious. Kravitz supposes it’s a little obvious.

“Fuck yeah, we are.” Taako moves to stand by Kravitz and twines their fingers together. “Seriously, congrats, you guys are gonna be great at this whole parent thing, and we can make sure none of the covens or packs bug you guys.”

“I call dibs on that dark husband guy,” Merle offers. “I’ll kick his ass.”

“Who, Magic Brian?” Julia laughs. “Yeah, kick his ass, he’s one of the worst.”

Magnus shakes his head. “Magic Brian, Dark Husband of the Midnight,” he says mockingly. “Dude’s a total asshole.”

“He sounds like my type,” Taako says offhandedly. Kravitz squeezes his hand, just a little possessive, and Taako grins. “Not as much as this guy, of course, but you know.”

“He’s actually kind of awful, he’s one of the creepy vampires, but…” Julia shrugs. “He can’t mess this up for us.”

Magnus kisses the top of Julia’s head and beams. “We’re gonna be parents!”

“I’ll toast to that,” Taako offers, lifting his wine bottle. “Jules, can you drink?”

Julia pauses. “I don’t think so?”

“I’ll drink for both of us,” Magnus offers.

Taako shakes his head. “No, you should swear off alcohol in solidarity. I can drink for all three of us, don’t worry.”

“You already drink for three people,” Merle mutters. “Gimme a glass of wine, I want to toast.”

Magnus goes off to get wine glasses, and Merle looks beseechingly up at Julia. “Can I be the grandpa, Jules? Please?”

“We’ll talk about it,” Julia promises. “Mags, honey, do we have something I can pretend is alcoholic?”

“Orange juice,” Magnus offers.

Julia sighs. “Good enough.”

“Are you sure you don’t want vodka?” Kravitz asks. “I doubt that a vampire-werewolf hybrid would be too badly affected by it.”

“And at least one of us definitely has vodka,” Taako adds.

“No, I’d rather play it safe, but thanks for the offer.” Julia takes the carton of orange juice that Magnus hands her. “Who’s toasting?”

“Me,” Merle and Taako say simultaneously, and then glare at one another.

“Merle first, his’ll be longer.” Magnus pours a glass of wine for Merle and then himself. “Merle?”

Merle accepts his glass and holds it up. “You guys are gonna be the best parents out of all of us,” he says with conviction, “and we’re all gonna love your baby. Congratulations, you two. Here’s to baby Burnsides.”

“Baby Burnsides,” Taako echoes, and the five of them all drink.

Magnus smiles at Taako. “Alright, whatcha got?”

Kravitz looks at Taako expectantly, and Taako smiles at him for a heartbeat before raising his bottle. “Here’s to family,” he says decisively. “Yours, mine, and all of us. Proud of you, bud.”

Magnus beams, and Julia grins. “Hear, hear,” she says, and takes a long swig of orange juice.

Kravitz clinks his bottle against Taako’s and smiles. “That was lovely,” he murmurs.

“Short and sweet,” Taako agrees, and leans over to kiss Kravitz gently. Kravitz smiles into it, and Taako’s smiling when he pulls away. “You know, we’ve got a pretty sweet crew with the five of us.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Kravitz murmurs, and Taako laughs, and they lift their bottles to their mouths in unison.

[chocolate-brownies]

Mindfulness is often packaged as an individual pursuit: you carve out a space in a comfortable setting or a studio that suits your needs so you can take time to calm down, relax, or focus better for work. The benefits advertised are very me-oriented.

This personal project, essential to mindfulness, overlaps with an inherent tendency in society to stack or silo individual and community, says Rhonda Magee, mindfulness teacher and law professor at the University of San Francisco, in a recent podcast with Mindful’s Editor-in-Chief Barry Boyce. In other words, we see an opportunity for mindfulness to make us better team leaders, community members, and activists, but we don’t see where the personal and social agenda can align—indeed, would they cancel each other out altogether?

“The problem is that in our society it’s sort of either or, it’s either about the personal or it’s about the social. And yet, if we can open to our own experience we know we’re always already both individuals and a world,” she explained.

Magee’s research focuses on issues of social justice and inclusivity. In a world that faces increasingly complex problems, Magee argues that mindfulness provides an opportunity to understand issues through multiple points of view.

The following excerpt explores the difficulty of achieving both personal and social growth, and the role mindfulness plays in balancing the two:

  Rhonda Magee on Mindfulness and Inequality

9:28

Rhonda Magee: We largely continued to live in very segregated communities and cultures and systems. And that’s a fact that is one that we struggle to keep coming back to. You know, we know that part of the way we’ve been taught to look at these issues is that we were segregated officially, and now we’re not. And now if communities are racially identifiable or culturally distinct, it’s all a matter of choice. It’s all, you know, a matter of the market. It’s not, about patterns or conditioned habits and also structures, the way we do schooling, public and private, the way we continue to structure our religious communities. We tend not to really see how we are very, very, very deeply still embedded in and committed to, actually, we have a taste for, it seems like, segregation.

Barry Boyce: We reinvest invest in boundaries that we think we’ve gone beyond, mentally, in our media, we reinvest in those boundaries.

Rhonda Magee: We really do.

Barry Boyce: …that you are more different from me than is really the case.

Rhonda Magee: Yes, and we reinvest meaning, we send our kids to schools that are still very isolated. We move around the country. I live in San Francisco. I hear people find various and sundry different ways to explain why they leave a very diverse region. And often my white friends, for example, find themselves in much more white spaces after the “stresses of the city.” And, you know, sometimes this racial piece of it is mentioned, often not widely, but maybe in these quiet conversations. I had a young woman come and talk to me about a friend of hers; it’s often, you know, speaking about a friend, not myself. This young woman was an immigrant from Eastern Europe and she had another friend, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, who came to San Francisco and said she wanted to move away because she wanted to be around more Americans, and by that, she actually meant more whites.

There still is a way that part of the legacy of white supremacy in America is that we define what it means to be American, still and in the eyes of many both domestically and internationally, as white. And that is what we are still up against, is what we have been seeing emerge in the political culture and the discourse around making America great again. So there’s a deeply embedded desire, or kind of a way in which we keep moving into segregation and reinforcing it, reinvesting in it, as you say. We’re all in that world. So, even mindfulness organizations are built up in networks that are already very segregated. All of our networks for reaching out, finding potential teachers, finding people to come to our organizations, our events, they’re already very segregated. And so, we are up against that challenge of, again, living in a society that’s already structured to push us apart. And those dynamics are coming from so many different institutions that it’s actually very hard for any institution to start reaching out to adults, adult learners or adult practitioners, and saying let’s come together from these very different places of relative segregation and isolation.

And so a concrete way to address that is, I mean, there are short-term steps, but I actually think a longer-term cultural change is what has to happen. This effort must outlive our own lifetimes. It will. Another problem we deal with in the West is very short-term focus. If we can’t imagine our efforts realizing some gain tomorrow, or at the outside six months from now, we’re not sure it’s worth our time. We are not going to change these patterns in this country that took hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years to embed without a commitment to changing them that is at least as farsighted.

There still is a way that part of the legacy of white supremacy in America is that we define what it means to be American, still and in the eyes of many both domestically and internationally, as white.

Barry Boyce: Are you suggesting that if you have too much of a hunger for immediate results, you won’t really commit? That you really have to take on that notion that we’re planting seeds in a garden that we will not see flower? I haven’t really thought of it that way: If silently in your mind you think you want to see a short-term gain, you just give up…

Rhonda Magee: It’s very easy to get frustrated.

Barry Boyce: You think… this neighborhood isn’t going to change.

Rhonda Magee: Yes, the community isn’t going to change, this meditation group isn’t going to change.

Barry Boyce: Yeah. So yeah that’s very helpful. Keep going.

Rhonda Magee: So, we need both a very long-term commitment and a lot of patience, both of which, I think, are gifts from me of my own mindfulness practice. And not that I’ve gotten there, right, I’m a work in progress just like everybody else. But to be able to sit with the frustration that comes with, oh, here we are again trying to address this same issue of the denial of white supremacy in our history with people who, once again, don’t want to talk about. It’s frustrating.

Barry Boyce: How does patience square with the possibility of falling into apathy or not being willing to call somebody on something?

Rhonda Magee: So it’s “both and” again. You know, realizing there’s time for, and a place in our own being in the world, for patience. And there are times for, and a place for, being in action. And it’s again, it’s not either or. It really is both. So there are ways we can call people into conversations about white supremacy with compassion for the fact that we all are in this together. We’ve all been trained away from this conversation. So, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to have to go by fits and starts and be interrupted, maybe even for years in a single organization because we’re not ready for it yet. To really deal with these issues is high pay-grade level mindfulness work. It isn’t for people who have not really come to see the depth of what it means to see clearly, what it means to work with our own conditionings, to sit in the fire of the painful recognition that, oh my mind actually does orient me to people who look like me. Oh, I do feel safer. Honestly, I wish I didn’t, but in fact I do feel safer when I’m in these places. Mindfulness can help us with a lot of the really subtle difficulties of doing the work that must be done to dismantle these patterns and habits that draw us to reinvest in segregation. Mindfulness compassion practices, these actually can help.

Mindfulness can help us with a lot of the really subtle difficulties of doing the work that must be done to dismantle these patterns and habits that draw us to reinvest in segregation.

So, it’s actually, it’s both that kind of patience that comes with a mindful holding of a multi-generational looking back and forward at the same time type of project. Because we are both, looking at a particular history is how we got here and trying to imagine a future for our children and our children’s children that will be much different. And then trying to work towards that future, in part by trying to redeem our past, looking at the role our particular communities, our particular families, our cultures have had in setting us on this journey that we’re on that keeps pushing us in corners and polarizing us. What’s been the role of our family, our culture, my neighborhood, my own conditioning in those tendencies? How can I address those and at the same time realize that we’re not going to address them overnight? We can’t. It will not happen overnight. We didn’t get here overnight. But we can take steps, we can take steps.

This conversation is adapted from Episode Seven of the Point of View podcast with Barry Boyce.  

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The post Can Mindfulness Helps Us Dismantle Inequality? appeared first on Mindful.

[junker-town]

A Celtics team 5 years in the making

The Celtics finally went for it. Now what?

Take a trip down the rabbit hole of Danny Ainge’s transaction page on Basketball-Reference once more for old time’s sake. Explore that page long enough, and it will reveal a nonlinear method of rebuilding from scratch filled with endless possibilities.

Remember that Keith Bogans’ shell contract begat Abdel Nader and that Tayshaun Prince was briefly a Celtic. Recall the one that haunted Sam Hinkie; Jordan Crawford for Philly’s heavily protected first pick that became a pair of inconsequential seconds.

Pour one out for the time Ainge used a cap exception to secure a late first-rounder that got Isaiah Thomas. Raise one final toast to the time he picked up Jae Crowder in the Rajon Rondo deal.

You should also take a moment to remember all the deals that never happened: a bushelful of picks to move up in the draft to take Justise Winslow, trades for Paul George and Jimmy Butler that broke down on various draft nights, and not getting Kevin Durant in free agency.

“It never goes the way everybody wants it to go, you know?” Ainge said with a slight chuckle during training camp.

Take one last look around because those days are suddenly over. What had been an endless series of moves spiraling into nebulous directions has suddenly come into clear focus. The end result is a core featuring Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, and Al Horford with as many as five rookies and nine other new additions to integrate into the lineup.

Even in the hyperdrive reality of the modern NBA when roster turnover is inevitable, the Celtics offseason was extreme. Not that it was completely unexpected.

“I loved our team last year,” Ainge says. “I had a blast. I really enjoyed it. I knew we weren’t a championship team with the Warriors and the Cavs, but I thought the team achieved all they could.”

Ainge pushed back at the suggestion that last year’s group had run its course, but nevertheless he went into the offseason looking to acquire veteran star power. He made a run at George on draft night, then turned his attention to Hayward in free agency. That, in turn, necessitated trading Avery Bradley for Marcus Morris to balance the cap ledger. And that was supposed to be that. Until Kyrie Irving became available.

The blockbuster deal for Irving involving Thomas, Crowder, and the last of the vaunted Brooklyn picks was announced in late August, traditionally the quietest part of the NBA calendar. It was stunning in that teams that compete in the conference finals simply don’t trade key players to one another. It was also stunning in that Ainge had finally traded away his most prized asset to forge a completely new team.

Some of it was opportunity; players like Irving don’t usually become available. Some of it was timing with key contracts coming due. And some of it was uncertainty over Thomas, who is hoping for a late December return with the Cavs from a hip injury. All of it just kind of happened.

The Celtics believe that they are better-positioned for the future with a clearer cap situation. They think they’ll be better in the postseason with two elite playmakers along with Horford, and they think their young players are ready to step into larger roles. In other words, this is really who they are for the foreseeable future.

“There will always be changes and we’ll have to tweak it but yeah, we have no intention of blowing our team up again next summer,” Ainge said. “That’s for sure.”

But who are they? Nobody really knows. Of all the contenders that made wholesale changes in the offseason, none is as opaque as the Celtics. To begin to understand them, we need to start with the question of identity.

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

If you compare Irving’s career numbers with Thomas’ from the impartial distance of a spreadsheet, they look remarkably similar. Both are scoring point guards who utilize a high number of possessions and both have issues on the defensive end. They are both certified All-Stars and elite scorers. Beyond the data, though, you’d be hard-pressed to find two more different players.

Irving has always been basketball royalty, a top recruit at Duke who went first in the 2012 draft. He is sleek and skilled, a ball-handling virtuoso and brilliant shooter who slips between cracks and unspools textbook perfect jumpers. He plays with the easy confidence of a can’t-miss prospect who once made the biggest shot of an NBA season.

For all of his gifts on the court, Kyrie has been a cypher off the court for most of his career. He shocked many with his trade request (who would want to leave LeBron James?) and seems perpetually unbothered by the prospect of leading a franchise in pursuit of a championship. Beyond his dabbling with the flat-earth society as a means of challenging social constructs, there is little that we know about Kyrie Irving.

Thomas, on the other hand, plays with the vengeful hellfire of a man scorned. The last pick in the same draft class the year Kyrie went No. 1, the All-Star that coaches wanted to bring off the bench, the little guy who challenges the giants by going right through them, Thomas exists to prove others wrong. You never have to guess what he’s thinking because he’ll tell you right to your face.

He personified the character of the 2016-17 team perfectly. Like Thomas, many of the players had been overlooked and undersized. They played with a snarl and a chip on their shoulders that even their detractors — and there were many — could appreciate their effort.

“Last year our identity was a feisty group of kids that played really hard. But we did rely on Isaiah a ton.”

Pull back from the raw emotion that team engendered to the safer distance of the salary cap sheet, and the trade makes logical sense. Kyrie is younger and under contract for one more season beyond this one, when he has a player option. If you commit to him, you are securing the prime years of his career.

And yet, by trading Thomas and Crowder, as well as Bradley, you are also exchanging your hard-earned persona for a blank slate.

“Last year our identity was a feisty group of kids that played really hard,” Ainge says. “But we did rely on Isaiah a ton.”

That but is the biggest reason for all the change. When Thomas was out of the lineup, the Celtics struggled to score. While Thomas performed magnificently in the postseason, those team-wide offensive shortcomings were magnified, especially by the Cavaliers, who blew them out in five games while Thomas was sidelined by his hip injury.

That weakness was first addressed by signing Hayward, a seven-year pro coming off his best season right in the prime of his career. He gives the Celtics offense flexibility the team hasn’t enjoyed since Paul Pierce was still roaming the Garden floor. Together with Horford, who is a skilled playmaking big man, the Celtics now have multiple options where before they were limited.

There was still the dicey matter of Thomas’ hip, and that’s where it gets complicated.

Could they have gone into this season without one of their most important offensive players for at least the first few months? That question stopped being rhetorical the moment Irving became available.

Irving’s arguably the best one-on-one player in the game and has proved capable of taking over playoff games all by himself. Ainge refers to him as a “born basketball player,” and adds that, “Kyrie has proven that on the biggest stages against the best players in the world he’s one of the elite players.”

To make the deal, Ainge had to not only part with two of his core players, he also had to throw in the highly valued and much-discussed Brooklyn pick. Ainge caused a few ripples among the hardcore faithful when he suggested that he had a responsibility to Horford and Hayward to put the Brooklyn pick on the table in trade talks for Irving.

“Here we are asking those guys to come in with an opportunity to win and they did,” Ainge says. “They chose us over other teams because they believed that we’d do what it took to win. So it’s hard to recruit free agents and not do all you can to win. I did feel like there was some responsibility to those guys.”

Viewed from that perspective, Ainge’s methods come into an even sharper focus. Horford doesn’t sign without a stable environment already in place. Hayward might still be in Utah if he didn’t think the Celtics were a viable contender. And Irving may not have been so anxious to join a team without those two already on the roster.

As much as cap space and tradeable assets, this is how contenders are built and maintained in the modern NBA. Loyalty at the top of the NBA food chain is as much between players as it is between teams, and Ainge has tried to turn the Celtics into a destination for stars to consider.

What he’s looking for now is continuity, which sets up an interesting experiment this season. How do you get a team with 11 new players to perform as one?

The Celtics don’t have a captain, which isn’t that surprising. They haven’t had one since Rajon Rondo was traded. If there is a central figure in the locker room, it’s probably Horford. He’s not a forceful personality the way Kevin Garnett was a culture change unto himself. Horford, rather, is a stabilizer.

“I want to help our guys in any way I can to make them better,” Horford says. “Just be a good example for them and making sure I’m challenge them on the court and we’re growing as a group. Everybody wants to label one guy as a leader, but I feel like we have many leaders on this team. That’s the way to do it. When you have a locker room with only one leader, you should worry.”

Horford pointed to Irving’s championship experience and Hayward’s professional example. He cited Marcus Smart’s vocal contributions. He noted Jaylen Brown’s precocious development and veteran big man Aron Baynes, who provides toughness and savvy.

Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

That’s a good start, but chemistry is not easily sourced, nor is it easily gained. It’s one thing to assemble the pieces of the puzzle, and it’s quite another to execute on the court. Through the course of their one season together, Horford and Thomas were able to develop a dynamic that fueled their offensive possessions. Now he needs to do it again with Irving and Hayward.

The frantic pace of player movement has accelerated this team’s learning curve, and all three understand that it largely falls on them to rewire the team’s approach. No one is under the impression that it will take place overnight, least of all Brad Stevens who is tasked with organizing a structure around which all the new pieces can become whole.

“It’s like a brand new job,” he says.

Stevens has simplified some of his concepts and impressed upon his coaching staff the need to remain flexible and malleable to adjustments when needed. He���s been impressed by how quickly his team has picked up its defense, which requires trust and communication. For Stevens, this is not about X’s and O’s. It’s about creating a framework for his team to find itself.

“All that stuff happens when you’re focused on winning,” he says. “All the other stuff about spending time together, we’re eating meals together, and we’re going to be around each other for a long time. That’s not just what it’s about. Do I know what the guy next to me does well, and can I put him in position to do that? Everyone’s intent is already good.”

What is it that makes Brad Stevens so darn good? His after-timeout plays are so nifty that my colleague Tom Ziller has dubbed him the Michael Jordan of the Whiteboard. His offenses are heavy on player motion and rely on crisp, unselfish passes out of their actions. His defenses cover up weaknesses and utilize strengths. When you look at a Brad Stevens team, you see a well-coached team. All that is true, but it still doesn’t get into the heart of the matter.

“Brad’s one of the greatest coaches because he allows you to go out there and play and be you,” Marcus Smart says. “He doesn’t try to make you anything else but you, and he allows that. He puts you in the right places to have success.”

Few players need to be themselves more than Smart, who is blessed with a competitive streak that mandates playing time. He will guard anyone. He will go after loose balls and tough rebounds and play with an edge to the point of recklessness. There will always be a place for someone like that, but he has been defined in the minds of many by his weaknesses.

Smart’s primary issue is his shot. He’s a 29 percent three-point shooter for his career and unless that improves, teams will continue to exploit that hole in his game. When he was struggling last March, Stevens told Smart that he had confidence he would make them when the game was on the line. Smart hit 39 percent of his threes during the postseason.

“The bottom line is he needs to know that we think that too,” Stevens says. “I believe in Marcus. He’s a winning basketball player.”

His other weakness was his weight. Smart was carrying around 240 pounds during the playoffs, and his conditioning was becoming an issue. In the offseason he shed 20 pounds thanks primarily to an overhauled diet...and thus was born Skinny Marcus.

“It’s what you eat,” Smart told me while munching a post-practice banana. “It defeats the purpose to go be in the gym for two, three hours and go home and eat a burger.”

Skinny Marcus has been the talk of training camp, draining threes in the first preseason game and becoming a vocal leader for a defense that relies on switching as much as any team in the league. He wants to become a more complete offensive player, getting into the paint to create for his teammates and earning trips to the free-throw line. Stevens approves, of course, but he’s not taking any credit for it either.

“You can lead people in certain directions as much as you want, but ultimately it’s got to be their decision,” Stevens says. “That’s why I respect Marcus so much. He made that call.”

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Much of Stevens’ approach is culled from the book Mindset by Carole Dweck that advocates fostering an environment focused on learning and improving. Mindset has gained extensive currency in education settings and has naturally filtered down to coaches who have shed the rigid old paradigms of the past.

There may not be a more perfect example of this philosophy on the Celtics than Brown, the second-year forward who surprised many with his season-long contributions.

“I just want to be the best version of myself,” Brown says, echoing many of Mindset’s themes. “That’s going to help the team. I just tried to push myself this summer and get uncomfortable. Working on things I’m not as good at, grind on those things, make myself uncomfortable so that I’m comfortable when I get into a situation in a game. Without being uncomfortable, you won’t grow.”

The defining moment of Brown’s rookie season came in the first round of the playoffs after the Celtics had inexplicably lost the first two games of the series at home. Stevens needed to shake up the lineup, and he went with veteran swingman Gerald Green over Brown. Green got hot in Game 3 and salvaged the season, but it was Brown’s willingness to keep himself ready that made the biggest impression.

“That would have debilitated most 19-year-olds,” Stevens says. “They would have been done for the season. But Jaylen was antsy to help against Washington.”

Brown returned to the rotation against the Wizards and stayed there throughout the playoffs. He took on LeBron in the conference finals and expressed zero fear. It wasn’t always pretty, but he competed. Over the summer, he put himself through a 28-day workout fast where he didn’t eat or drink water from sunup to sundown. He’s also incorporated meditation into his routine.

“You have to train your mind like you have to train your body,” Brown says. “Anything you can do to get as uncomfortable as you can, try to persevere through as much pain as you can to work yourself as hard as you can mentally. That will push your mental strength.”

When Brown came into the league, there were unsourced whispers that he was too independent of a thinker. Stevens literally scoffed when I brought this up.

“One of the things I really appreciate about Jaylen is he’s got a curious mind,” he said. “He wants to learn. He wants to grow. Setbacks don’t define him. He’s not afraid to make mistakes.”

The Celtics will rely heavily on Smart and Brown this season, along with third-year man Terry Rozier and rookie Jayson Tatum. Beyond them, the deeper ends of the rotation are a curious collection of rookies and veteran journeymen. Some of the rookies are old, like Daniel Theis, the 25-year-old German who turned pro at the beginning of the decade. Some of the veterans haven’t played much in the league, like Shane Larkin, who earned his stripes in Europe.

Whatever issues the Celtics will have this season, the expectation is that Brad will fix it. That the perception runs counter to everything he values is beyond his control, which means that he doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.

“I think we have a chance to improve as much as everybody from where you start and where you end, and we need to focus on that,” Stevens says. “In March, we should look much different than we do right now.”

And then what? And then we will finally see this grand design for what it is and what it can be. It took five years to manifest itself. A few months of the season shouldn’t be too much to ask before we have any idea if it will work.

[tipsycad147]

Tarot myths debunked! Nine "rules" of Tarot you can (mostly) ignore

Posted by Michelle Gruben on Dec 21, 2015

As soon as you delve into the world of Tarot, you encounter a bunch of do-this, don't-do-that warnings and prescriptions about how to use the cards. (Why, it's almost as if we were dealing with something magical, not just 78 pictures on cardstock!) Some of these superstitions undoubtedly have a grain of truth in them, while others are just baloney dipped in snake oil. Now, for your amusement and your edification, Madame Michelle will feed each “should” and “shouldn’t” into the Truth-O-Matic Machine (i.e., her brain!) and declare a verdict.

 You shouldn't read Tarot for yourself. 

Mary Greer put a stake in this old truism with her groundbreaking 1984 book, defiantly titled Tarot for Your Self. Her Tarot method is based on the premise that Tarot is a mirror of the human psyche, and that relying on a reader to interpret your cards makes no more sense than asking someone else to explain your dreams.

These days, Tarot has become as mainstream as the Mississippi—we have weekend workshops, decks to suit every persuasion, and shelves of tarot books that owe more to 1970s self-help literature than to the Western esoteric tradition.   The more accessible Tarot becomes, the fewer people believe that reading the cards is the provenance of a gifted few. And even professional cartomancers have to learn somewhere—usually, by reading for themselves.

That’s not to say that it’s easy to do Tarot divination for yourself. The potential for self-deception is high. Accurate readings call for a clear head and an impartial attitude—easier said than done when it’s your burning question on the table. But with some practice, you can cultivate the necessary detachment to be your own best Tarot reader. Learn to distinguish the whining voice of worry and desire from the subtle whisper of intuition. And be ready to get a second opinion when your well-calibrated bullshit detector starts beeping.

Truth-O-Matic reading: Yeah, but…no.

Using Tarot cards is dangerous.

Well, it depends on what your definition of danger is, doesn’t it? If you believe that opening a deck of Tarot cards is going to unleash a frenzied horde of demons that will drag you kicking and screaming into the dark world of the occult, then you need a reality check. If, however, you're worried that diving into Tarot will change your perceptions, scramble your priorities, and launch you into a lifelong obsession, then your fears are entirely justified.

Truth-O-Matic reading: Maybe.

Don't let anyone else touch your cards.

This warning is based on the assumption that a Tarot deck collects and stores the psychic energy of the reader. When another person handles the deck, according to this idea, their energy scrambles, contaminates, or wipes away this accumulation of energy, making the deck less attuned to its owner.

Most readers I know do have a “professional” deck which many clients will handle, and another deck(s) reserved for their personal use. But their concerns are usually mundane—germy, grimy, or clumsy hands fondling a treasured deck, or cards going missing during a long evening of giving readings in low light. Bad vibes are really a non-issue. A Tarot reader who is skilled enough to detect psychic imprints left on their deck will easily be able to give it a good cleansing before the next use.

Not only that, but readers who allow the querent to handle their cards give better readings than people who bogart the deck. Passing the cards back and forth facilitates the exchange of energy that allows information to flow more freely during the reading. Not only that, allowing the querent to shuffle, cut, and/or draw cards is a great way to keep the person actively involved in the reading. We've all experienced the client who wants to sit passively on their side of the table while the all-knowing Tarot reader tells them exactly what fate has in store for them. Blech. Letting the querent choose their own cards from the deck gives them a greater sense of control over their destiny, and perhaps encourages them to take positive steps after the reading is over. Also, many people are nervous about having their cards read, and keeping their hands busy helps allay those jitters.

On a side note, my permissive attitude about Tarot-sharing doesn't go for other magical tools. I'll let any curious person thumb through my Tarot cards, but I'm choosy about who, if anyone, gets to see my scrying crystal or athame. To make an analogy, I'll happily lend a sweater or scarf to a friend, but not my lucky undies. (And shame on you for even asking, Mark.)

Truth-O-Matic reading: Nah.

Don’t buy a used Tarot deck.

A corollary to the above, this caveat is also based on worries about psychic contamination. There’s nothing wrong with buying a pre-loved deck (as long as you make sure all the cards are there). Just cleanse the used deck according to a method you trust, dedicate it to your purposes, and have fun reading it. Shunning used cards makes trees sad!

Incidentally, I’ve found that plenty of readers actually prefer vintage decks. They’re usually easier to shuffle, and may have acquired a patina of incense smoke and hand crud that newly-minted cards just can’t match. (And, if you’re seeking a rare or out-of-print deck, you may have no choice but to acquire it secondhand.) Of course, if you favour a crisp deck that’s never been read by anyone else, that’s fine too.  

Truth-O-Matic reading: Whatever floats your boat.

You should “reset” the deck by putting the cards back in order after each use.

This myth must be perpetuated by those folks who mistake their OCD for some kind of special magical sensitivity. I’m pretty sure the only people who follow this rule are Tarot dilettantes who read the cards once a year on their birthday. A pro would never undertake the Sisyphean task of “resetting” the deck after every spread. Sorting the cards and placing them back in their proper sequence can be a relaxing, meditative activity—but it's by no means necessary. A good shuffle or two to mix in the cards from the last reading is all the maintenance a Tarot deck requires.

Truth-O-Matic reading: Oh hell no.

You can't purchase your first Tarot deck—it has to be received as a gift.

Try as I might, I haven't been able to track down the origin of the idea that it’s somehow improper or inauspicious to buy your own Tarot deck. An acquaintance of mine who comes from a Romani (Gypsy) family tells me that this is one of their customs. To wait to be given a deck for card-reading exemplifies patience, humility, and a true calling—while buying one for yourself signifies vanity.

The prohibition against buying your own deck may also be a legacy of the 19th-century occult societies. Before the publication of the Rider-Waite deck made the Tarot images widely available, knowledge of the Tarot would have been mainly conveyed from initiate to aspirant. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, for instance, the Tarot Trumps and their “true” meanings were treated as a powerful secret. Members built on their knowledge of the Tarot in stages, as they progressed from grade to grade. Each initiate was expected to make his or her own Tarot deck from a master copy (probably painted by Moina Mathers) upon achieving the grade of Adeptus Minor.

These days, of course, there are few secrets left in the occult world, and self-initiation is the norm. So, go ahead and buy your own Tarot deck—I’m sure the powers that be have better things to do than to hang out at Barnes and Noble punishing Tarot interlopers. Besides, if you’re a Tarot beginner waiting for someone to guess that you want a Tarot deck and to buy it for you, you might be waiting for a long time. Just choose a deck that appeals to you, as long as it’s Rider-Waite (Kidding! Sort of.), and dive right in.

Truth-O-Matic reading: Piffle.

Beware the Death card!

We can thank Hollywood for this one. It’s a B-movie cliché that any character who gets this card won’t live until the credits roll.

As every single beginning Tarot book points out, drawing Death does not necessarily portend someone’s impending demise. It signifies change—often positive change. But let’s not be tempted to de-fang (de-scythe?) this card completely. The change it speaks of can still be dramatic, scary, and presently unwelcome. When drawn, it’s a wake-up call to embrace the flux within and around us, and to face the inevitable. In recent years, with the trend toward Tarot for self-development, the pendulum has arguably swung too far the other way. Now, instead of “Death” we get “Transformation,” “Renewal,” “End of Cycle,” and other polysyllabic affirmation-speak. O Death, where is thy sting? Why dost thou blatherest on so?

Truth-O-Matic reading: Don't fear the reaper (but don't ignore him, either).

Don’t ask the same question twice.

“Does this shirt look okay on me?”

“Mmmph.”

“No, really, how does this shirt look?”

“It's a little tight—”

“Aw, c'mon, don't you like my new shirt? I got it on sale.”

“It looks fine.”

And then, because you asked the same question too many times, you leave the house looking like a stack of donuts wrapped in Spandex.

The danger is not that the Tarot will punish you for your impudence—that's superstition. No, the danger is in finally hearing what you want to hear, rather than what you need to hear, and making poorer decisions because of it. It's hard enough to keep your hopes and biases out of a reading without giving yourself multiple spreads to choose from. Didn't get a clear answer the first time? Some readers will keep the spread in place and draw additional cards for clarification, but even that practice has its pitfalls. (Do you really not understand the answer, or are you just angling for cards you like better?)

You may have also noticed that the cards are, for lack of a better term, impatient with persistent needling on one question. Ever try for a re-do and get the same answer phrased a different way? Or even the same exact cards? That's the Tarot gods trying to clue you in—the answer you've received is the right one, so take it or leave it. Persist in fishing, and the tone sometimes turns a little nasty.

Of course, there are times when you may want to do a follow-up reading on a question that has been asked in the past. But that's recommended only after some time has elapsed, and only then if the situation is actively evolving.

Truth-O-Matic reading: Mostly true.

Sleeping with your Tarot deck under your pillow will enhance your bond with the cards.

Now isn't this just like one of these lazy-ass New Age fluffy-bunny ideas: “To become a Tarot master, all you have to do is take lots of naps!” No, sorry. I’ve tried the osmosis method, and it doesn’t work. The only way to become familiar with the Tarot images is too look at them, read them, read about them, and read them some more—preferably at regular intervals, and across several decades. If exploring the cards in dreams is your objective, you’ll probably have more luck if you to choose an image to meditate on before bed. However, if you happen to like the corner of a cardboard box poking you in the cheeks all night, then be my guest.

If it’s a bond with the physical deck that you crave, the best way to connect with your cards is to handle them—handle them a lot, until your cards smell like your hands and your hands smell like cards.

Bend ‘em and scuff ‘em up until the edges are all soft and you can shuffle with your eyes closed. Mentally acquaint yourself with the texture and dimensions, so that picking up your deck feels as comfortable as sliding into your favourite T-shirt.

Will taking your deck to bed imprint it with your personal energy? Yeah, I guess so, a little. But folks who practice psychometry (the art of reading vibes from objects) generally agree that paper is a poor conductor of psychic energy, compared to non-organic materials like metal or stone. So the energy clinging to a Tarot deck may not feel as potent or last as long as with other tools. Still, if you want to infuse your cards with your personal energy, you can do that with a ritual or visualisation. I recommend charging them purposefully and consciously, rather than soaking them in the psychic equivalent of pillowcase drool.

Truth-O-Matic reading: Hmmph.

https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/77236103-tarot-myths-debunked-nine-rules-of-tarot-you-can-mostly-ignore